Share reform in China

With the deadline for reform of A-share listed companies fast approaching, companies that are still looking for the best restructuring path are running out of time.

While the Japanese stock market is witnessing more and more family mergers for the sake of operational flexibility, the Chinese A-share market is also being fundamentally restructured. This has not only sped up many state-owned giants to take their listed subsidiaries private but also motivated blue chip companies to launch reverse takeovers to expand and consolidate themselves and distressed companies eager to find potential backdoor listing bidders.

The market-wide restructuring process, or the so-called non-tradable share reform, started in May...